Hiking Pants, Hiking Belts & Harnesses

We will break down how to choose hiking pants for sailing as well as why you should wear them and who needs them. The main advantages of battened hiking pants on dinghies are: Leg comfort Allow you to hike further out Allow you to hike longer More directly translate body movement (energy) to the boat Why Wear Hiking Pants? Sailing a dinghy sailboat upwind requires you to keep the boat from healing and kept basically flat (as horizontal as possible) […]

Going up the mast doesn’t have to be scary or difficult! Take the scary and the difficult out of the equation with two options; a Bosun’s Chair, or a Mast Harness. To know which option will work for you depends on how long you will be up the rig, and where the boat is when the need occurs. If you are just doing some quick fixes, or you’re in “race mode” on stand-by to fly up the mast, a Mast Climbing Harness is […]

Tethers are one of those things that you probably don”t think about until a couple days before you leave for that once a year offshore race. Depending on how far offshore it is maybe you decide you don”t really need it or maybe you run out and buy the cheapest one you can find. Any tether is better than no tether, but your tether is what keeps you on the boat and it”s worthy of spending a little extra time […]

In honor of today’s Hot New Item, the Harken Bosun’s Chair, we’re going to be delving into the advantages of a harness vs. a bosun’s chair. For some, this may seem elementary — but the best way to get up a rig is a popular question for the guys in Customer Service, so we put our heads together and made up a quick list for each. Bosun’s Chairs tend to get a bad rap; modern versions are incredibly safe now, […]

Last week our Ronstan rep Ben sent us a few of the brand new trapeze harnesses Ronstan has just come out with. There are two models – the standard(above) and the race (below). They’re not ground breaking but these are well built harnesses at a pretty decent price. I tried both harnesses on here in the shop (we have a trap wire mounted to the rope rack). They’re both comfortable and both have a pretty standard spreader bar arrangement with […]